Placket-fastener and skirt-supporter.



PATENTED JAN. 13, 1903.

J. FRANZEN. PLAGKBT PASTENER AND SKIRT SUPPORTER.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 22, 1902.

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N0 MODEL.

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PATBNTED JAN. 13, 1903.

J. E. PRANZEN. PLAGKET PASTENER AND SKIRT SUPPORTBR.

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APPLICATION FILED JULY 22. 1902.

N0 MODEL.

JOHN E.

FRANZEN, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

PLACKET-FASTENER AND SKlRT-SUPPORTER.

SPECIFIGATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 718,116, dated January 13, 1903.

Application filed July 22, 1902. $erial No. 116,489- (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern.

Be it known that I, JOHN E. FRANZEN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New J ersey, have made anew and useful Invention in Placket-Fasteners and Skirt Supporters, of which the following is a specification.

My invention has for its objects, first, to provide a placket-fastener which shall be of as simple a nature as possible and shall effectually hold the placket of a womans skirt always closed and in such manner as to as some a neat and tidy appearance without indicating its presence as attached to the skirt; second, to construct a placket-fastener which can be easily manipulated by the wearer and will not tear or disarrange the material of which the skirt is composed during the act of opening or closing the placket; third, to construct a placket-fastener of yielding metallic strips or parts and in such manner that there shall be a minimum number thereof and that the same may be constructed at a minimum cost; fourth, to construct a placket-fastener composed of two pivoted fiat metallic strips so arranged that when the same are fastened together the adjoining edges thereof bind the material of the skirt between them and effectually close the placket without giving any indication of the presence thereof.

To this end my invention consists in the novel placket fastener and skirt supporter illustrated in the accompanying drawings and disclosed in the following specification, the special points of novelty being particularly pointed out in the claims at the end thereof.

Figure 1 of the drawings is a plan view of i one form of my novel placket-fastener and skirt-supporter, showing also in broken lines a portion of the skirt as attached thereto. Fig. 2 is a sectional view illustrating thesame in the act of being opened or unclasped. Fig. 3 is a perspective viewillustrating a womans skirt with this form of my novel fastener and skirt-supporterattached thereto and in open or unclasped position". Fig. ,4: is a view similar to Fig. 1 of a modified form of the invention. Fig. 5 is a side elevational view of this modified form of the invention. Fig. 6 is a sectional View taken through Fig. 4 on the line at a; and as seen looking thereat from the top toward the bottom of the drawings in the direction of the arrows. Fig. 7 is a view similar to Figs. 1 and 4 of a still further and, in fact, preferred modified form of the invention.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, in all of which like letters of reference represent like parts wherever used, and first to Figs. 1, 2,and 3,0tand brepresent two thin steel strips, similar in every respect to corset-steels, with holes drilled therethrough at definite points for securing the material of the skirt to the fastener. One of the strips 1) is provided at its lower end with an angular pivot-arm c, riveted thereto,and the other with a pivot-pin p, and the two are secured together in the manner shown, so that the upper ends thereof may assume the relation shown in Fig. 3 on opening or unclasping the fastener, the arrangement being such that when the strips a and b are clasped they lie in substantially the same plane. 1 represents a cloth covering for both of the strips a and 12, secured thereto in any preferred manner. d (1 represents metallic clasps secured to the strip 12 by rivets, as shown, and having each a slot and an eye 6 for receiving the clasp-pins f, secured to the part at, these several parts being not substantially different from the like parts of corsetsteels, except that the operation of clasping and unclasping is somewhat different, as will be disclosed later on. Integral with the upper clasp d is ahook h for securing the supported skirt directly to the clothing of the wearer in a manner well understood by those skilled in the art. The operation of this form of the invention is as follows, referring particularly to Fig. 3: The skirt is slipped in place about the waist of the wearer, and the upper ends of the pivoted strips a and b are moved inward toward each other by taking holdof the strips and bending them into the position shown in Fig. 2. After the parallel edges have come into contact with each other the heads of the pin f are passed outward through the holes or openings of the slot 6 and the parts are released, thusallowing the longitudinal yielding action'of the strip b to force the pins f into their lower or locked position, as shown in Fig. 1. If a belt is worn, it is then placed in position around the waist of the wearer with the hook h secured thereto in the manner well understood. It will be tion, however, there is a slight tendency to rupture or tear the material at the pivot end of the fastener on opening the placket to its extreme position, owing to the fact that the fulcrum or pivot-point p is located to one side of the point about which the material turns, so that the same is placed under strain.

In Fig. 4 I have shown a modified form of the invention which overcomes this objection. In this form the strips (1 and b are similar in all respects to the strips already described. One of the novel features in this modified form consists in pivoting the lower ends of the two strips, so that when they are unclasped and rotated about their pivot-point there will be no strain put upon the material. This is effected in this instance by pivoting the strip b to the strip a upon an axis in a plane therewith, as shown, so that when the fastener is unclasped the two strips thereof rotate away from each other in different planes, as is apparent on inspection of Fig. 5, the fastening and unfastening action in this form being the same as before by bending the two strips in the manner shown. This modified form also possesses another desirable ad vantage,which is clearly illustrated in Fig. 6, in that the looking ends of the clasps d and the supports for the pins f are located above thevfaces of the strips at one side thereof, as clearly shown, in order that the material 8 of the skirt may be put in position thereunder and attached to the two strips a and 12 without cutting or mutilating. In other words, the edges of the material on each side of the placket are slipped under the overextending parts of the clasps and are secured thereto, so that when the two parts of the fastener are locked in position a neat appearance is given to the joining parts, similar to a seam. After the material is thus secured in place the overextending parts may, if preferred, be forced downward into me chanical contact with the material, thus diminishing the thickness of the completed parts. In fact, I prefer so to do in actual practice.

In Fig. 7 I have shown the preferred form of the invention, in which the lower ends of the two strips a and b are turned first outward in a plane with the body of strips and then over and inward, so that their inner ends are located slightly above the top of the strips to enable the placing of the material thereunder in the manner described in connection with Fig. 6. The pivot-pin p secures the adjoining ends together, so that when the strips a and b are rotated outward there is no strain upon the material. In like manner the clasps d d are preferablyintegral with the strip 1) and bent over in the direction shown, so that a minimum number of parts results in the manufacture of this form of the invention, and the material may be secured thereunder in the manner already described in connection with Figs. 4 and 6.

I do not limit my invention to the especial details disclosed in the accompanying drawings and described in the foregoing specification, as a number of them might be materiall y departed from and still come within the scope of my claims hereinafter made.

I am aware that placket-fasteners and skirtsupporters have heretofore been devised of thin flat strips of steel or similar material pivoted together at their lower ends and provided with means near their upper ends for looking or clasping them and the supported skirt in a closed position, and I make no claim generically to such a structure. I believe it is broadly new with me to devise a placketfastener of this type in which the adjoining lateral edges of the two strips are located parallel with each other and in the same plane, so as to bind the material between them laterally when closed, and thereby constitute a neat seam-like appearance. I believe it is also broadly new with me to construct a placket-fastener of two thin strips of yielding material and to provide the same with clasping devices adapted to be clasped and unclasped by the longitudinal movement of one or both of the parts, the arrangement being.

such that the yielding action of the two parts maintains them in clasped position when once secured, and my claims are also generic as to this feature.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. A placket-fastener consisting of two flexible strips pivoted at their lower ends and located in the same plane; in combination with one or more slotted clasps secured to one strip and one or more locking-pins secured to the other, the clasping and unclasping action being effected by bending the flexible strips, substantially as described.

2. A placket-fastener and skirt-supporter consisting of two flexible strips pivoted directly to each other at their lower ends and in the same plane with their adjoining lateral edges binding the material so as to constitute a seam-like appearance; in combination with clasps and a hook near the other ends thereof,

substantially as described.

3. A placket-fastener and skirt-supporter consisting of two flexible metal strips pivoted directly to each other at one end and in the same plane, one of said strips having a clasp or clasps and a skirt-supporting hook integral therewith, and the other a pin 'or pins for locking the clasps, the adjoining lateral edges being adapted to bind the material of the skirt so as to constitute a seam-like appearance, substantially as described.

4. A placket-fastener consisting of two flat to give it a seam-like appearance, substan- 1o tially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my flexible strips having their lower ends turned name to this specification in the presence of inward and pivoted together; in combination two subscribing Witnesses.

with one or more clasps so arranged that when the fastener is secured in place the lateral edges thereof lie in close contact with each other and bind the edges of the placket so as I JOHN E. FRANZEN. Witnesses:

C. J. KINTNER, M. F. KEATING. 

